


Float With All Your Strength

by BananaMilkLightning



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Character Study, Friendship, Gen, Kingdom Hearts III Spoilers, Light Angst, Post-Kingdom Hearts III
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 09:28:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21847450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BananaMilkLightning/pseuds/BananaMilkLightning
Summary: [KH3 Spoilers]Roxas thinks of what he can do after Sora disappeared. He finds himself in Sora's favourite place, a home away from home, thinking of him. He can't help but feel uneasy, he had only come back and yet...
Relationships: Roxas & Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 19





	Float With All Your Strength

**Author's Note:**

> _Picking up the pieces, scattered hearts and scattered dreams_

Roxas walked down onto the beach on autopilot, for no particular reason. There were many things he could have thought about. Trivial things, like whether he wanted to help Xion and Pence in exploring the mansion situated in Twilight Town, join in on Aqua training with Axel, or even mess around with Ventus to prank Terra. Serious things like finding the rest of the Organisation members, helping the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee, or the biggest worry on his mind. Searching for any leads where Sora and Riku disappeared to. There was a brief moment when he had thought it was his fault, because he wasn’t in Sora’s heart anymore. The others had quickly shut that idea down. He was not thinking of these things when walked down to the beach, sea salt ice cream in hand.

Sora would stand in the water sometimes. He wouldn’t be doing anything in particular, often an ice cream in hand, or talking to a friend who was also beside him. He’d look out across the vastness of the ocean with a relaxed posture, grinning all the while, or a contemplative expression on his face. Roxas had once asked Sora what he was doing when he stood there and the boy replied, ‘thinking about all my friends,’ he’d point forward, ‘out there’.

It sounded like an exercise in flutily. How could he think of everyone he called “friend”? Roxas recalled a borrowed memory, Riku saying Sora could never get serious. Then later, when Riku had seen Sora sitting on their favourite tree, it was obvious he thought otherwise.

Roxas could remember the promise he made to Hayner, Olette and Pence. The four of them would go to the beach and have fun. It took a long time to get there but he had finally got to spend a summer holiday with them. He had come to like the beach so much, yet at sunset when everyone had left, he felt strange.

Now he was doing to same thing as Sora, standing in the warm water up to his ankles, an urge to walk deeper on his mind. He wasn’t really thinking about all his friends, at least not in the way he was sure Sora did. He gazed out onto the horizon and the sun inching its way down to sleep in the sapphire depths below. Roxas took a large bite out of his ice cream, as the surf twisted and coiled around his ankles. His feet felt heavy, slowly sinking by millimetres into the wet sand. Roxas dug his heels in. Stubborn to a fault, they all were.

Roxas began to look with his own eyes. At the sea mirroring the sky, the spring sun aflame, beckoning him to reach. He listened, beyond the small tumbling waves, to the wind ruffling papou tree leaves, his stuttering breath. He wonders if it’s easier to breathe underwater. He takes a bite out the ice cream dripping into the water and finds comfort in the taste.

There were many things in the world he desired. There used to be only one thing in world he desired. There few things in the world he desired. His next steps he was unsure of, but he knew he couldn’t waste this newfound freedom he had craved for so long. If he could invite another person to have their own, a piece of hope.

It was a strange thing to turn around and see yourself, or rather someone who looked just like you yet not. Ventus stood in front of him with a worried expression, mouth half open with words he couldn’t form.

‘Ven.’ Was all Roxas could say.

‘I thought-,’ Ventus let out a breath. ‘You’ve been standing there for a while, are you okay?’

The “as much as you can be,” went unheard.

Roxas sounded breathless himself. ‘Yeah, I am now.’

‘Good, that’s…good.’ Ventus said, hand over his heart.

Inviting the heart to wander in the abysses of solitude. He wondered if that person ever felt like that. So alone in the world that even when they are given a chance, to hope for something different, they can’t believe in it. The right person, if the right person could convince them, give them hope, then just maybe.

Roxas wondered if Ventus noticed something. Perks of having the same face, he thought. Then surely Ventus would know how he would look to him too.

‘There’s something I want to do,’ Roxas began, ‘If we can’t help Sora directly and it’s all up to Riku, then I know someone we can help.’

Surprise washed over Ventus’ face, his breath halted in a gasp. ‘You can’t be serious. That’s never- It’ll never happen.’

The water climbed to kiss the tips of Ventus’ shoes.

‘You can’t help someone who doesn’t want help?’ Roxas shook his head. ‘It’s not set in stone. If it were, how many of us would still be here?’

‘What if my heart can’t take it?’ Ventus sounded so small, Roxas almost didn’t know what to say.

‘Do you really believe that?’

Ventus was silent for a moment, while Roxas finished up his ice cream. The water surged to envelop the soles of his shoes, making him feel as if he was being dragged forward. Roxas kept quiet. He wanted to let Ventus make up his own mind, what he wanted to do. Listening to his heart, to quash his own doubts. Roxas knew he was stronger than he seemed, even if he was scared.

‘No.’ Ventus stood tall, ‘I’ll be strong, for the both of us.’

Roxas gave a wry smile. ‘Sora might not like it at first, but with whatever’s coming, I think we could use all the help we can get.’ He moved closer to Ventus and the pair looked out at the setting sun, casting them in orange rays of light.

‘Have you told the others?’

‘I talked to Axel and Xion about it but I wanted to ask you first. After all, I don’t think I can do it without you, but I’m not the first to have the idea, right?’

‘Uhh.’ Ventus scratched his cheek. ‘I wasn’t gonna go disappear and search. I just… We’re not abandoning Sora, are we?’

Roxas couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out. ‘Sora would call you a dummy for thinking that.’ He shook his head. ‘No, I think he’d be sad if we only focused on him so much. And, what if they go somewhere, we can’t reach, the longer we wait?’

The surf made Roxas dig his toes into the sand.

‘Okay,’ Ventus nodded with a hand pressed to his chest. ‘No more hesitating. We’ll do what we can and then some!’

‘Yeah!’

Ventus cupped his hands around his mouth. ‘Did you hear that? We’re coming for you, whether like it or not! I never said I was giving up!’

Roxas held the ice cream stick to the sky. He smiled, reading the word _Winner_ printed across the wood. He wasn’t alone, but he knew someone who was and maybe, that would be a start to making everything right, for when Sora came back.

**Author's Note:**

> _His turn had only begun_
> 
> Thanks for reading.!  
> Feel free to point out any typos etc. it hasn't been betad  
> Comments and questions welcomed! 
> 
> *Roxas voice* 'My turn.'


End file.
